A Story
by Redbaron71
Summary: Barry Allen tells a story to a large crowd in front of the Hall Of Justice. Set in the Young Justice universe after the events of Endgame. One-Shot


EVERYTHING OWNED BY DC

A Story

Barry Allen aka The Flash walked down and sat on the steps that led up to the Hall Of Justice. The weather was great outside for mid July. Clear blue sky with a few clouds and a blazing sun. There were crowds upon crowds upon crowds of people protesting and holding up signs, the police doing their best to barricade them and stop them. Like the Justice League were some type of famous celebrities. In a way, they kinda were.

He looked at his hands, thinking back at all the years and everything he's been through, and here he was.

"Hey everyone."

Everyone just looked at him, even the police. They all just stopped moving. He had asked bats to link him to the speakers that were spread out throughout the field in front of the hall. They were invisible to everybody else, but they were there. He smiled remembering all the jokes he had made at Clark and Bruce for never needing them. Yet ironically, here he was using them.

"Considering you're here and I was bored inside the hall because there was no one to bug inside I thought I would come outside and tell you a story." He had to pick his words carefully, last thing he needed was them storming the hall.

"So how about you all put down those nice signs and sit down. You are welcome to protest later but how about you listen to my story in this nice summer weather." Amazing how they were all protesting here when they could be at some beach in Hawaii. He made a mental note to ask Iris if they should hit the beach in this sweet weather. In front of him the crowd slowly put down their signs and took a seat. The police however remained standing.

"Wow. There are a lot of you. Hey officers your welcome to sit down too you know. We aren't the Kardashian's that you need to guard us." That earned him some chuckles from the crowd. The police relaxed and let down their guard and sat down too, some even took off their helmets.

"You know all know me, I'm the Flash, Central City's resident speedster. And I'm going to tell you a story, about me, the league, and a couple other things." Nobody objected so he kept going, must be cause of the weather.

"We aren't gods. We never were and are never going to be. When we founded the Justice League we didn't create it so we could replace the law or even become above it. We created it to protect what was already there. What was already there was the law, society, education, military, people, places, homes, hospitals, schools. We aren't bound to America alone, we protect the whole world.

Behind these masks and uniforms we live normal lives, have our normal issues, our daily problems to deal with. We go through everything a normal person goes through: we have to deal with taxes; those are horrible things by the way. Puberty, growing up, dealing with nasty work bosses; I most definitely have been there, heck even school wasn't a breeze. Our covert ops team Young Justice, they are young heroes but they are their own team. They have to juggle training, school, life, missions, and this hero job, and it's not easy. I could barely handle school forget about anything else. Especially when your a teenager who just woke up and magically had powers or you went through an experiment or had an accident. It's not easy going to school and having more things to worry about than a math unit exam, or if I'll make the soccer team, and if my crush likes me. It's about trying to hide your powers so nobody gets hurt.

Let me ask you something; 'Can you remember who you were before the world told you who you should be?'

I don't think so. When I was growing up I remembered I never cared what others thought of me. I never cared because why should it matter? We all grow up too fast. These teenagers that form up the Young Justice team nobody told them to risk their lives, they chose themselves. They're all just brave kids who grew up too fast. That's who they are. Heroes, teenagers, the future."

"Nobody told us to go form the Justice League, nobody told us to band together as heroes and save the world. Nope, we didn't even tell ourselves, it just happened. We didn't know each other when we happened to fight together for the first time. I'll admit I was pretty surprised when I saw, 'crashed' into Batman. I don't even think I crashed more like I was thrown by a 12 foot tall giant into Batman, and that's literally how we first met. Quite the first impressions to the World's Greatest Detective. When we started out as a team you wouldn't believe the problems we ran into. Other than learning to trust each other, trying not to start fights with other members, we even had to keep a handle on our powers. None of us had been in this job much around the time we formed the league so we didn't have much mastery in our powers. We were inexperienced, not like how we are now. Before the League was created we were just heroes doing the right thing, that still runs today. We are heroes before we are the Justice League."

"Do you know what it's like? Everyone complains about how much we make a mess, how we bring problems. But nobody knows. Let me ask you, do you know? Do you know what it's like living our life? True it is kind of an adventure and I've seen things I thought I'd never see. But that's not why we do this gig. That's not why we risk our lives everyday. A lot of us have gone through accidents or experiments that have made us who we are, some of us are fuelled by tragedy. But we all have one thing in common as heroes, it's why we do this; we go through all this pain to make sure nobody else suffers the way we did. Make sure nobody gets hit by tragedies that engulfed our lives. Make sure no kid ever loses their parents to crime and grows up wrong. Choices we make, things that happen to us, they shape who we are in the future.

The same goes for heroes. You might think of us as threats or dangerous people but we are just people who were blocked by society, hit by tragedy, and grown up loved by our family and friends.

Let me tell you about a friend of mine, his parents were killed right before his eyes as a kid, that tragedy fuelled him, made him into who he is. He developed his skills and abilities from the day his parents were murdered. But he was lucky, growing up he had people that helped him get past what happened to him, he grew up loved and turned into one of the best heroes I've ever known. He vowed to make sure that what happened to him, that crime that made him an orphan, he vowed to never let it happen to anyone else ever again.

When you think about what the Justice League has done or why you think it's bad, just remember we are normal people too, we make mistakes too, but just like you can't feel the pain or after effects that a soldier feels after coming home from war, you can't really feel what we've been through either. Who we've lost, what we've had to endured, so when you go home to your friends and families tonight and you see everyone just laughing and smiling, just remember not everyone had that, not everyone can do that. Just remember we make sure you go home every night and see your family. A luxury you shouldn't take for granted."

"Food for thought I think."

Barry sat another couple minutes in silence and then walked back inside. What he didn't expect was for everyone to rise up and start clapping. He smiled this was for Wally, when he was younger he had told him;

"Regardless of whether or not people believe in the Justice League, they should always believe each other. They should always have faith in us, not for being heroes but for being just like them; normal people."

He was right. God Barry missed him so much but he wasn't about to cry in front of strangers so just did a playful salute and walked back inside. It had been on Wally's bucket list, to tell a story in front of a large crowd in front of the Hall Of Justice. It's why Barry told the story, he was trying to complete Wally's list.

No one else was in the hall so he just roamed around with his mask off until he crashed into bats in the library. He took off his own mask and Barry could see the charming blue eyes of Bruce Wayne, he also didn't expect him to come over and hug him. He hugged him back this was definitely new, Brucie didn't always showcase his emotions. He always kept them locked, hidden away but he probably just heard the story he just told. Bruce whispered a few words in his ear but that was all he needed to let loose the emotions he had wrapped up since the boy's death.

"He would have been proud of you."

He started to let drop some tears, not for himself but for the boy who wanted nothing more than to be like him. For the boy who had the brightest future he had ever seen, who threw it away to become a hero and help others. The boy who left behind a loving family and a beautiful girl. Who left behind his best friend and a mentor who loved him like a son. For the boy who gave his life for a world that owned him nothing.

For Wally


End file.
